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as a superman among trekkers. e very idea
of connecting two great thru-hikes---the Paci c
Crest and Continental Divide Trails---was un-
precedented and audacious, and Skurka's pace,
33 miles a day, was stunningly fast.
e question was whether Alaska could be
broken down into Skurka-like numbers. Nor-
mally it isn't done that way, says Roman Dial,
one of the state's most experienced wilderness
explorers. Covering huge distances on estab-
lished trails is one thing. But doing it when you
have nothing but contour lines, game trails, and
graveled river braids is an entirely di erent task.
" ere are only a handful of people who've
ever tried that," Dial says, "and Andy's goals were
as ambitious as anyone's I've ever heard of."
Skurka's plan was to cover 24 to 25 miles daily.
To get to know the terrain better, he joined a
team in the 2009 Alaska Mountain Wilderness
Classic, a contest o en described as the rst in
the adventure-race genre. His team won, and he
went home feeling ready for 2010.
Dial was less sure. Skurka was "one of the
fastest, if not the fastest, backcountry travelers
I've ever met," he says. But Dial also sensed a ri-
gidity in the young adventurer: "He didn't seem
to know how to look around. He was focused
only on moving forward, and that doesn't always
serve you in Alaska." More important, could
Skurka enjoy the experience---a capacity Dial
says is essential to surviving months of hardship
in the unforgiving northern backcountry?
SKURKA'S MICRO-MEASURED world doesn't leave
much room for re ecting on emotions. But over
the long weeks of deep solitude, change came.
Dial saw it when he joined Skurka for a segment
that included a May blizzard. As the two crossed
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park's Chitistone
Pass, Skurka pushed forward with a grimness
that bordered on bitter. "He didn't make it easy
to want to spend time with him," Dial says. "And
it didn't have to be that way."
But two days later they arrived in the town
n Society Grant Andrew Skurka's trek was funded
in part by your Society membership.